By: John Rauser - Farecast Fareologist
One of the easiest way to control your airfare is to choose the days on which you fly. Being smart about this aspect of your travel can often save you $40, $100, or even $500+ on international travel. However, there are many times when the days you travel don’t make much difference at all. You’ve probably heard (or can guess) that due to high demand, Friday and Sunday are the most expensive days to fly. But often, the difference between these popular days and the rest of the week isn’t all that much, and you needn’t obsess about it. Here are some tips on when your travel days matter and when they don’t.
The old conventional wisdom - Saturday-night stays
It used to be that travelers were required to book a Saturday-night stay to get the cheapest fares. But for domestic travel, this hasn’t been the case for a number of years; newspaper articles about the demise of the Saturday-night stay rule date back to at least 2004. There have been articles in recent weeks suggesting that the Saturday-night stay rule may be coming back, but so far this has been limited to a small fraction of the market. With the Saturday-night stay rule falling by the wayside, business travelers pay for flexibility in different ways. Booking at the last minute, and the ability to change or cancel your trip both command a significant premium.
One place where Saturday-night stay rules are still widely used is for travel to Europe. This image shows the year-long average price for trips to Europe between 2 and 14 days long.
Including a Saturday night stay makes an average $500 difference in the cost of a ticket. So if you’re on the East coast and you’re planning a quick romantic getaway to Europe, just make sure to include a Saturday night in your trip.
The new conventional wisdom - Fly on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, not on Fridays or Sundays
It is certainly the case that weekend days are popular for travel and are generally more expensive. But the time to really pay attention to this rule is during Spring break season, and at the peak of Summer travel.
Schools traditionally schedule Spring break for a single week in March, making an 8-night Saturday to Sunday trip especially appealing to students, or parents of students. If you have some flexibility, making that trip Tuesday to Wednesday can save you $50.
Summer, particularly in June and July is another season where weekend travel days are especially prized. If you can avoid traveling on Friday and Sunday through these two months, you’ll save an average of $20-40 per ticket, which can really add up for a family.
The good news is that during much of the year, you can book your Friday to Sunday trip and pay less than $20 extra for it.
Update: Here is a chart that shows visually what I’ve described above. The chart shows average prices for travel over a two week span in each of March, June and September, standardized so that the first Tuesday is 100%. You can see that during September, departing on a Friday costs a modest 5% extra. During March or June, the cost of a weekend departure jumps 10-20%. Again, most of the year is like September, but flexibility can really pay off in March, June and July.
Holidays
The final wild card is holiday travel. Here, carefully choosing your dates of travel can easily save you $100 or more.
Thanksgiving is relatively simple, since it always falls on a Thursday. The key to savings is to avoid returning on the following Sunday. Stay a day or two longer and you’ll shave $70-100 off your fare. Christmas is trickier, as it isn’t always on the same day of the week. There are always big savings to be had, but every year is different. There’s even variation by region, which I wrote about last year; some cities seem to prefer week long trips for Christmas, while others prefer to return immediately afterward.
Finally, many people suggest flying on Christmas Eve or Christmas day to save. This works, but you should know that it’s usually not any cheaper than flying out earlier, but in the middle of the week. Keep this in mind if taking time off isn’t a concern, and you’d rather spend extra time at your destination.